Kaimuki attendant parking lot planned

The city plans to transform a Kaimuki metered parking lot into an attendant lot as a quick-fix attempt to alleviate the business area's parking woes.

City officials announced Tuesday at a Kaimuki Business and Professional Association meeting it would put the job out to bid, to the surprise of the Kaimuki Neighborhood Board chairman.

The decision met with opposition by some business owners at Wednesday's Kaimuki Neighborhood Board meeting. They say an attendant lot would scare off customers and that an attendant booth and equipment will cut the number of existing stalls.

Chairman Mike Abe had planned to ask the board to reconslfujimori@starbulletin.comider its May 17 vote supporting attendant parking, but the board lacked a quorum Wednesday to take a vote.

Abe supports a proposal to build a three-story public parking garage on the existing large lot between 11th and 12th avenues, but that met with opposition by some members of the association, who say 18 months of construction will kill business.

"We need to get something done," said the mayor's representative, Jay Ishibashi. "We're going ahead with what was agreed to -- the attendant lot in the large lot -- and see how that works."

A city-hired consultant found in 2004 that half the lot was being used by long-term parkers, said Toru Hamayasu, chief planner for the Department of Transportation Services, who was not present at the neighborhood board meeting Wednesday, but was at the business association meeting.

Hamayasu predicted a significant drop in long-term parking with the attendant lot.

To discourage employee parking, rates will go up in the third hour, doubling to $1.50 per hour. Parking rates will remain at 75 cents an hour for the first two hours.

The city will begin putting the job out to bid in August, likely for a three-year contract. If the plan does not work, the city can opt out since every city contract has a cancellation clause, Hamayasu said.

Speaking of the city's decision to create an attendant lot, Realtor John Kobayashi told Abe, "It's a done deal, Mike. I don't have $7.5 million in my pocket now (to pay for a garage)."

When asked how many stalls would be lost if an attendant lot with a ticket booth and four gates is created, Kobayashi, who owns his own Kaimuki parking lot, replied, "Who cares if the net parking is 20 or 30, but it loosens up more parking."

But deli owner Michele Acedo countered: "Kaimuki is rejuvenating; there are a lot of new eateries. ... With more cars coming into Kaimuki, you need more spaces.

"If you put up a parking garage, it will benefit generations to come," Acedo added. "If you put an attendant, people will drive right by."

A concessionaire would foot the bill for the attendant parking, including a booth and gates for four access points.